Is LED Lighting Expensive?

Yes the initial Purchase of a LED lamp is far more expensive than the traditional incandescent light bulb we have grown accustomed to for the last 130 years. However purchasing LED lamps should not be regarded as another expense but as an investment, be it for your home or for commercial use, it most probably will be the fastest return on your investment, short of landing a number on a roulette table.

A High Quality LED lamp would set you back in excess of £20, but if I say to you, it will save you the £20 in energy costs within 12 months, would you be interested? And it will return you £20 per year every year for ten years or more, you will be more interested. That’s a return on investment of 1000%.

he latest generation LED lamps provide similar light output to regular 50w Halogen lamps, but burn less than 10% of the power. If you also consider the longevity of up to 50,000 hours, then the rest is simple math.”. For example: If you were to change ten of your regular 50W halogen spotlights with ten equivalent strength LED 9W GU10 lamps consuming 4.4W, you will save over £3000.

A halogen lamp will cost you £2.00. A GU10 LED will cost you £20. Each LED lamp lasts for 50,000 hours as oppose to a halogen which will only last for 2000 hours at best before it has to be replaced. So, over the 50,000 hours you will need 250 (25 x 10) halogens (costing £500 in total) or alliteratively 10 LED Lamps (costing £200). The initial buying price is one thing, the running cost is another. To run each halogen requires 50 Watts, and running a high quality LED Lamp only needs 4.4Watts. Taking into account today’s average domestic electricity price of around 13p/kWh. So over 50,000 hours the cost of running the halogens will be around £3,300 and the cost of running the LED will be £300. That is a saving of over 90%.

In total you will spend £3,800 (£500 + £3,300) buying and running your halogens. If you replace them with LED lamps you will spend only £500 (£200 + £300) in all saving over 85%. The best part its guaranteed, a quality LED lamp, (not the cheap versions) will come with a minimum guarantee of three years, that’s over 25,000 hours continuously on, so even if it fails after the 3 year guarantee period, you will have saved over £1500 pounds on your initial investment of £200.

The answer to the initial question “is LED Lighting expensive?” Then I would have to say no, it is most probably the best investment one can make, especially now that energy cost are on the rise and when saving monthly overheads is key to financial survival. Remember you will also be lowering your carbon foot-print. Less energy used is less carbon emissions.